World Europe Alarm Phone: reports 15.-18.June‏

Dear all, we were now able to write the reports from the cases of last
week (not including Sunday). Please find a summary of the cases below.
Best, Maurice

On the 15^th of June the Alarm Phone was alerted to three vessels in
distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea, north of Libya (see:
http://watchthemed.net/reports/view/151). While, fortunately, their
rescue was later confirmed to the Alarm Phone, there were no mainstream
media reports about the many rescue operations of that day as well as
hardly any official accounts providing information about the rescue
operations, possible fatalities and the number of rescued travellers.
With the novel EU military mission ‘Eunavfor Med’ approaching, this
seems to fold into an official rationale where rescue operations are
sought to not be reported, in order not to create a ‘pull-factor’.
We from the Alarm Phone oppose this highly dangerous and irresponsible
strategy and demand clear public accounts of what is currently going on
in the Mediterranean Sea.

On the same day, we learned about a vessel in the Western Med that had
left the Moroccan shores already in the early evening, around 4am (see:
http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/152). Our contact person
in Morocco could not reach them anymore and was worried about his
friends’ well-being. Neither the Spanish rescue agency Salvamento
Maritimo nor the Moroccan Navy had any knowledge of this vessel in
question. Despite several attempts to reach the passengers on the vessel
and repeated calls to our contact person in Morocco, the fate of the
passengers remains unknown. The Alarm Phone shift teams will follow up
on this case and try to stay in touch with our contact person.

In the night to Tuesday the 16th of June 2015, we received a call from
someone in distress in the Aegean Sea (see:
http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/155). Due to an unstable
phone line, communication was difficult and it could only be understood
that there was a group of approximately 40 people in the Aegean Sea who
had left from Ayvalik, Turkey and were in urgent need of rescue.
Although rescue was later confirmed by the Greek coastguards we wanted
to verify it as there were several vessels in distress in the same area.
However, the passengers could not be reached until the 23^rd of June
when one of them reported that their engine had broken down and they
were stuck at sea, unable to move on. Still in the Turkish SAR zone, the
Turkish coastguard eventually rescued them.

Again a day later, on the 17^th of June, our shift team received a
distress call in the morning from a vessel in the Western Med (see:
http://watchthemed.net/index.php/reports/view/153). As so many vessels
before in the past few weeks and months, they were later intercepted by
the Moroccan Navy.

On the 18^th of June we learned about a small vessel in the Aegean Sea
that was trying to reach the Greek island of Lesvos, carrying about
18-19 passengers (see: http://watchthemed.net/reports/view/154). They
had been in the water for several hours and the situation was becoming
increasingly dangerous with water entering their vessel and the
travellers starting to panic. They were able to send us their position
which we passed on to the Greek coastguards. A few hours later rescue
was confirmed by the Greek coastguards and later also by the passengers
who sent us a text message saying ‘Thanks for your help, we have
been rescued!’Â